If we can believe Hector Ramirez, who lost by 72 questionable votes to Dem Party Machine-backed Victor Pichardo in that dirty little race to fill disgraced west Bronx assemblyman Nelson Castro’s seat, Hector’s lawsuit against Pichardo and the city Board of Elections was bounced by a judge on a technicality because of some alleged sleight-of-hand by Dem Party consigliere and attorney Stanley Schlein and some hide-and-seek by Pichardo.

Hector claims Pichardo went into hiding to duck a process server before the court hearing to seek a ballot recount over dirty politics.

Hector claims Schlein said he wasn’t repping Victor in court, so no need to slap legal papers on him.

Then Pichardo was nowhere to be found to slap the papers on him. But come the hearing, there was Stanley in court.

No legal service, no case, ruled the judge.

Schlein called Hector a “day late and dollar short,” with his timing and facts, just squeaking into court a half-day short of the ten-day filing deadline for election appeals, and explaining he was called in at the last minute to rep Pichardo.

A Dem Party source - NOT Stanley - said Hector’s folk could have easily found Pichardo, since he was a speaker at the party’s judicial convention a few days before the court hearing.

Hector said he and his lawyer were ready with a sheaf of charges, ranging from levers missing on voting machines for all but Pichardo and a minor candidate, Pichardo’s mom working as a poll worker at a key polling place - and reportedly steering voters away; different vote counts on the same machines, and other suspicious activity.

EQUAL TIME

We’ve pretty much been beating up former Boro Prez Adolfo Carrion in ink over his mayoral dream - by dropping his Dem Party ties and sliding on to the November ballot on the Independence Party line.

So in the interest of fair and balanced, as a certain quasi-news network says, check out this interview he did with Gotham Gazette’s David Howard King, talking about the city housing authority (“The damn thing is broken”), education (“turn schools into community life and education centers 14 hours a day, seven days a week”), and on the new Yankee Stadium - after firing local board members opposing it and signing a weak community benefits agreement ( “Yankee Stadium was a heavier lift. I took it on the chin on that but in the end the deliverable was a new neighborhood in the South Bronx, new parkland and a sense of pride of being a new destination.”).

Going into her final term after a rather dicey primary that saw her petitions riddled with fraud (a judge let her off the hook), we hear the often abrupt Mott Haven Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo is trying to get a little kinder/gentler with the media.

Could be she’s looking for warm and fuzzy ink after her City Council job ends, with maybe a run for Assemblywoman Carmen (Granny) Arroyo’s seat, should the aging doyenne of Mott Haven politics finally retire.

Of course, with the Bronx political clan succession plan, Granny could step down after a win in next year’s assembly race, with her district county committee naming daughter Maria as the Democratic candidate in a special election.

Maria’s seat would then be up for grabs in a non-partisan election. God Bless Bronx Politics!

In all fairness, Arroyo does rate respect in and out of the council as a hardworking, well-informed legislator.

As chair of the council’s health committee, she’s now working on restaurant owners’ complaints that the city’s grading system is picky, expensive and punitive. She’s pushing legislation to create an ombudsmen’s office to deal with complaints before they become fines.

Howie The Hump. Long retired 4-2 Morrisania squad detective Howard “Howie the Hump” Denton back on the case recently, testifying in a 1988 murder case of a mother and young daughter, thanks to DNA evidence, and with a conviction with help from Howie’s testimony. Howie told us his girlfriend says he has renewed energy since a recent heart valve replacement, and we’ll leave it at that....

Nameplate. Oops. With a name like ours, we shoulda been extra careful checking spelling for new 52nd Precinct C.O. Nilda Hofmann’s name. That’s Hofmann, one f, two n’s. Sorry.